Sakura and the Sick Day
by GreysLover06
Summary: Sakura, who has never been sick before, learns what it means to take a sick day. Please read and review, bearing in mind that this is my first fan fic! Thank you!
1. A Strange Feeling

Ten-year-old Sakura Kinomoto had every reason to be deliriously happy. She was just waking up from a wonderful sleepover at her best friend (and cousin) Tomoyo's house. They had stayed up late and eaten lots of candy the night before. But something about this morning didn't seem so wonderful. Her head was hurting, and her stomach was feeling kind of weird. She had been feeling a little strange the day before, but had determined not to let it spoil her weekend with Tomoyo. Perhaps this was not such a good idea, however, since her father and older brother had been ill that week with what they called "stomach flu". Sakura had no idea what was meant by that – all she knew was that both her father and brother had spent a lot of time in the bathroom groaning and making strange sounds, and she had been asked to make soup and had been on her own for dinner that week. As she opened her eyes and started to sit up she heard a gasp next to her.

"Tomoyo-chan?" she asked sleepily. "What's wrong?"

"Sakura-chan, are you okay? You look so pale?"

"I feel a little strange."

"Strange? Let me go get mother!" Tomoyo raced out of the room and Sakura sighed. It wasn't that she didn't love Sonomi, Tomoyo's mother. She had been her late mother's best friend though, and sometimes she could be a bit – overbearing. Like in the way that she made Tomoyo grow out her hair so she would look more like Sakura's mother, Nadeshiko. And ever since she had realized Sakura's true identity, she had invited her over nearly every weekend for a sleepover and insisted on spending as much time with the girl as possible. Sakura had a feeling that Sonomi would blow "feeling strange" into something huge. Just then Sonomi blew into the room.

"Sakura-chan! Are you all right??" Sonomi panted. She looked at her closely. "Tomoyo-chan was right, you _are_ pale! Do you feel sick? What hurts? Does your head hurt? How about your throat?"

"M-my head hurts a little, but I'm sure it's nothing. And my throat doesn't hurt."

"Are you nauseous?"

"N-nau ?" Sakura looked to Tomoyo for help with this word she had never heard before.

"Nauseous. Do you feel like you're going to throw up?" Tomoyo put in helpfully.

"I – " Sakura paused. She _did_ sort of have that feeling in her stomach, but since she had never thrown up, or been sick before, she didn't know what it was called or what it meant. But when she saw the look of worry on Tomoyo's and Sonomi's faces, and remembered the breakfast they were all going to eat downstairs and the fun she was supposed to have with Tomoyo in the park that day, she decided that it was nothing. "I don't know. I don't think so." She responded.

"Good," Sonomi looked relieved. "Then how about we have breakfast in bed? I'll go get it and be right back." Just like that, she was gone.

"Sakura-chan, are you sure you're okay? Your father and older brother had the flu just last week, so you probably got it from them. Are you certain that you want to eat breakfast?"

"I don't want to ruin our Sunday, Tomoyo-chan. I'll just take a nap when I go home, and I'll be fine! I'll be in school tomorrow, you'll see."

"Okay, if you're sure…" Tomoyo clearly didn't believe her friend. "I know! Instead of going to the park, we can take pictures in here! I have lots of new outfits for you to try on, and you can rest more!" A pained look crossed Sakura's face. While she loved Tomoyo as a sister, sometimes her excitement to film her was a bit much to handle.

Next Chapter: An Interesting Breakfast


	2. An Unusual Day

Sonomi reentered the room a few moments later, with the maid trailing a few steps behind, carrying the breakfast tray. She had heard that Sakura was feeling a bit unwell, and had put only dry toast on her plate. While Sakura was thankful for the concern, she had no idea why she was offered toast. Sonomi, after getting in the queen-sized bed and settling in next to Sakura, mistook her look of confusion for dissatisfaction, and began piling food onto her plate. Not knowing better, Sakura ate, but she soon realized she wasn't at all very hungry and pushed her plate away. Sonomi filled the silence with an endless stream of chatter about the activities Tomoyo and Sakura would do that day at the park. Finally, Tomoyo broke in and explained that Sakura had agreed to be her model for the day and they were going to stay in her room, so she could do some editing. Sonomi grew silent at that, and finished her breakfast.

After finishing their late breakfast, Tomoyo had Sakura dress up in outfit after outfit for nearly five hours, and asking her to pose in various positions. One time, she even asked her to use her staff in a pose, but Sakura was too tired and unfocused to do it properly.

Finally, a few minutes before dinner, Tomoyo grew fed up with Sakura's increasing apathy towards the "modeling session". The smell of dinner cooking was beginning to seep into the room, and Sakura's stomach was feeling strange again, so the girls agreed to call it a day. Tomoyo went downstairs to distract Sonomi (since she had insisted that Sakura stay for dinner), while Sakura slipped out. Sonomi caught them, but unexpectedly understood, and insisted that they use one of her limos.

The ride home seemed much longer than usual, because neither girl was feeling very well. Tomoyo had been feeling a bit sick since shortly after brunch, and had felt worse as the day had gone on, and had gotten more and more snippy. Sakura had been feeling worse and worse, and had lost interest entirely in the modeling, which had only fed into Tomoyo's snippiness. By the time they were in the limo, traveling to Sakura's house, both girls were ready for a break from each other.

When they were about five minutes away from Sakura's home, they went over a bump, and Tomoyo's hand flew in front of her mouth. Sakura noticed, and turned to ask her friend what was wrong, but before she knew what was going on, Tomoyo was motioning to the driver to pull over, leaping out of the car, racing behind a nearby tree, and throwing up. Sakura watched her jump out of the car, and deciding she didn't need to see anything else, turned to look out the opposite window, trying to calm her own stomach. By the time the limo pulled up in front of Sakura's house, Tomoyo was lying down on the backseat. She waved weakly at Sakura, who waved back as she stumbled into the house.

As soon as she entered her house, Sakura could tell that her father and brother were feeling better – she could smell dinner, something she hadn't been able to do all week. And it smelled good – but it made her stomach hurt even worse than it had previously. Her father heard her come in and called out.

"Sakura-chan! Did you have a nice time with Tomoyo? I didn't expect you home until later. Come into the kitchen, I'm making dinner!"

"I'm not very hungry," she responded quietly. This immediately caught her brother Touya's attention. He left the kitchen and went to the entryway, where Sakura was still standing.

"What, the monster doesn't want to eat?" he started to tease, but then he saw her face. "Sakura-chan, you're pale! Are you all right?"

"I…don't know…" she replied softly.

"I'm going to take you upstairs now. Climb onto my back. I don't think you want anything to eat right now?" Sakura shook her head sleepily as she climbed onto her big brother's back. Touya carried Sakura upstairs, gently dressed her in her most comfortable pair of pajamas, and put her to bed. She woke up as he was turning off the overhead light, for long enough to say "thank you" very softly. He simply smiled in return and went back downstairs, plugging in her night light and shutting the door behind him.

The click of the door was the cue for Kero to wake up from his nap. Immediately feeling Sakura's presence, and feeling confused by it, he flew over to her and woke her up.

"Sakura-chan! You're home early! And sleeping? Why? It's dinnertime!"

"I…I feel kind of strange," she confided. "And I'm not hungry." Kero had a look of genuine concern for Sakura on his face, which soon changed to one of concern for his appetite.

"Not hungry…guess that means no food for me." He looked so depressed that Sakura felt bad.

"Kero-chan…Papa said he would set aside a plate if I was hungry later. I'll go downstairs later, and bring it up here for you. But I have to sleep, because I'm really tired. Maybe I'll feel better after a nap."

Kero agreed, and even offered to use headphones as he played his video game, since Sakura's head was still hurting more than she would admit. Sakura slept until nearly 8:30, when Kero decided he was tired of waiting.

"Sakura-chan?" he whispered at first. When this got no response, he said it again, louder. "Sakura-chan! Wake up!" This got her attention.

"Wha-what? Kero-chan?" She sat up, disoriented.

"Good, you're awake. How are you feeling?" Sakura thought about the question. When she had first gotten home, she had had a yucky feeling in her stomach, and the smell of food made it almost unbearable. Now the feeling was still there, but much less intense. She could think about food without feeling quite so awful.

"A little better, I guess."

"Good! Then you can go downstairs and get me food now, right? Right?"

"Okay, Kero. But then I'm going back to bed!"

"Okay!"

Sakura crept downstairs quietly. She paused outside her father's study, where she heard him talking to Touya.

"She seemed warm when I brought her upstairs. Do you think she has the same thing we had?" Touya was asking.

"I don't know. All we can do is let her rest, eat if she feels up to it, and see how she feels in the morning. I know if she has what we had, she probably won't be at school tomorrow, or very much this week. And she probably won't eat."

"I hope she doesn't get what I had. Or if she does, I hope she doesn't try to go to school. Last Monday was a day I never want to repeat. And my teachers would not let me out early."

"That's right, you got sick on Monday; I didn't get sick until Wednesday." Sakura wandered into the kitchen at that point of the conversation, not wishing to hear any more of the discussion. She found her dinner, heated it up, even though she felt that yucky feeling start to come back, and took it upstairs for Kero. He ate it ravenously, but did manage to offer some to Sakura, who refused it, looking green. She went back to bed with the hope that this would all be done with by the morning.


End file.
